Interviews for Garda Reserve posts begin

INTERVIEWING several hundred applicants for the Garda Reserve started this week, the Department of Justice said yesterday.

A spokeswoman said figures provided by the Public Appointments Service (PAS) — which is conducting the recruitment process — show 6,611 people had so far applied for the reserve.

The accuracy of the figures were disputed again yesterday by the Garda Representative Association (GRA), which had claimed on Thursday night the numbers were falsified.

“Our information is that there appears to be discrepancies,” said GRA president John Egan yesterday.

“We don’t think the figures are accurate. We would like the department to be open and give out the number of applications on a county by county basis.”

He said the GRA’s information came from good sources: “We are being told that people who apply for the full-time force are being contacted and asked do they want to apply for the reserve. They are then applying for brownie points.”

Separate GRA sources are also claiming that the number of forms their members are receiving at garda stations to process the applications are very small and no where near the thousands of applications quoted by the department.

“They don’t tot up. We are processing so few forms, that we simply don’t believe what the department is saying,” said one garda source.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice denied there was any truth to the claims.

“We emphatically reject claims that we are falsifying the numbers, the claims are completely false.”

She pointed out that the figures come from the PAS, which was running the entire recruitment process.

She said the latest figures from the PAS showed 6,611 people had applied for the reserve. She said these were actual applications and not just queries.

The spokeswoman said it would not be surprising if the large number of applications were not reflected in the processing at garda stations as that would only happen near to interview stage.

She said there was “absolutely no foundation” to the allegation of people ringing applicants for the full-time force and suggesting they also apply for the reserve.

She said the PAS had “categorically” assured them that this was not the case.

She did add that the documentation setting up the reserve had made it clear that it would be an advantage when applying for the full-time force to have served in the reserve.

The Irish Examiner was unable to get a response from the PAS despite repeated attempts to contact them. Mr Egan said the full-time force was still badly under-resourced.

“While there may be more gardaí, we do not have the 2,000 extra gardaí promised by the minister.”

He said there was still no sign of the new fleet of patrol cars, which had been agreed two years ago.

“Some districts have patrol cars in excess of 100,000 miles. which are doing emergency responses.” said Mr Egan.